I have chosen to test the heat dissipation properties of the Scythe Quiet Drive by first installing the Seagate SATA II HDD sans Quiet Drive in the test PC and using S.M.A.R.T monitoring to determine the drives temperature. I will also be using SpeedFan 4.33 to compare the reported temperatures.

After testing the Seagate SATA HDD by itself, I will then install it into the Scythe Quiet Drive and compare the temperature difference. Again, S.M.A.R.T monitoring and SpeedFan 4.33 will be used to monitor temperatures.

Noise Reduction

In order to test the noise reduction qualities of the Scythe Quiet Drive I will again be testing the Seagate SATA II with and without the Quiet Drive. I will be using the Seagate SATA II HDD as the boot drive for the test system, so we should be able to hear the difference noise-wise during spin-up time. I have chosen to assess the noise levels for this part of the testing by using my ear instead of our Digital Sound Level Meter that we normally use. The reason behind this decision is that it was simply too hard to isolate all noise emitting components (PSU, CPU cooler, case fans etc.) from the mix to give an accurate measurement.

Test Results

Heat Diffusion

As was to be expected, the Seagate SATA II HDD ran considerably cooler without the Scythe Quiet Drive. Although 6 degrees seems like a considerable amount it still allows the Seagate SATA II HDD to operate within the manufacturers specifications of 0-60 deg C operating temperatures.

The outside of the Quiet Drive felt quite warm during operation, which indicates that the thermal sheeting is in fact doing its job of transfering heat to the outside of the case.

Noise Reduction

Noise reduction is where the Scythe Quiet Drive quite clearly excels. With the Seagate SATA II HDD snugly encased in the Scythe Quiet Drive the usual noises emitted by a hard drive during spin-up was significantly reduced. The noise was reduced by so much in fact, that I really had to listen hard over the extraneous noise of the case fans. I found myself constantly feeling the outside of the Quiet Drive for the tell-tale slight vibration of the hard drive working inside.

Let's head over the page to see how the Scythe Quiet Drive performed in todays review...

Thanks Rast Yes I was surprised that the drive didn't get hotter too, but the Quiet Drive does do the job well of removing the heat away from the drive. As I said in the review both SpeedFan (latest non-beta version) and S.M.A.R.T reported identical temps during testing.Quote

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